Online Accountability
Demand online accountability : By Brad Bumsted, STATE CAPITOL REPORTER, February 4, 2007 HARRISBURG Eugene DePasquale's heart was in the right place. The freshman Democrat House member from York and native Pittsburgher took a huge step in the spirit of legislative reform when he voluntarily began posting a summary of his expenses on his Web page. It's more than other members have been willing to do. For that, he deserves credit. However, there can be a potentially huge difference between what a lawmaker chooses to put in a summary versus the actual report filed with the House Chief Clerk's Office. Legislators, paid about $73,000 per year, are entitled to expenses of $148 per day when they are on official business, plus a state-paid rental car, district office rent and incidentals such as frames, photos, flags and trinkets for their constituents. There are major differences on how your lawmakers spend the money. Some collect few per diems. Others choose to drive their personal vehicle and get reimbursed for mileage. But knowing exactly what your lawmakers are doing with this money can be as hard to find out as Joe Paterno's salary. Well, not quite that hard. Still, you can't view these expenses without personally driving to Harrisburg and submitting a request in writing. You better have money for a hotel too. It can take days or weeks for officials in the House and Senate clerks' offices to fill the request. It's your money they are spending but it's heavily shielded to protect lawmakers. The first thing clerks' officials do is notify the legislator that you are looking it up. "It's no longer enough to tell your constituents that your records are at the clerk's office and that your constituents are welcome to make a trip to Harrisburg to review the records," said Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp, an advocate of legislative reform. It's outrageous that lawmakers get a monthly report from the chief clerks' offices showing how much money they've spent but you can't see it. Years ago, former Rep. Larry Roberts, D-Uniontown, put those reports on his Web page. He took heat from other lawmakers for doing so. All of this information should be available online -- and be complete. There's a dangerous precedent to be set if legislators put up their own summaries. I'm not suggesting legislators would falsify that information. That would be stupid. It could easily be checked. But if legislators follow DePasquale's lead and post their own summaries there's likely to be no uniformity. Nothing would prevent a legislator from eliminating, say, a certain category of spending on the basis that it's "not important" or combining expenditures to obfuscate specific expenses. We keep hearing lawmakers of both parties say they support "reform" and "transparency." Legislative expenses are just one of many elements that need to be addressed. The best "reform" is always to shine light on how money is spent. If lawmakers knew every penny would be posted on the Internet, you'd see scores of new fiscal conservatives. The argument you'll hear against this is, well, it wouldn't be fair. Just putting these numbers online wouldn't provide context on how the money was spent, they'll say. Political opponents could use the reports to make them look bad. But the numbers are what they are. Contact your state House and Senate members and ask them to post monthly reports and individual vouchers from the chief clerks' offices on their Web pages. Both chambers should enact a rule requiring this of all lawmakers. It's your money. Brad Bumsted can be reached at bbumsted@tribweb.com or (717) 787-1405. category:accountability category:news coverage